Weeks after Tucson, nothing has changed. If anything, Fox News has turned up the volume on partisan hate speech. Fevered hysteria and conspiratorial fear mongering on national television are not harmless.
How quickly we forget the lessons of history. The bogeymen of 1930s anti-Semitism that morphed into the bogeymen of 1950s McCarthyism has morphed again into the mainstreaming of Glenn Beck Militia Theater. The message is clear: Glenn Beck wants to extort your silence, and anyone who refuses to capitulate will be targeted and stalked:
Glenn Beck, Self-Appointed "Progressive Hunter"
The poisoned atmosphere unleashed by Glenn Beck and Fox News means any citizen - Democrat, Centrist, or Republican - can be slandered in public and targeted for persecution. Beck pitches his messages at unhinged misfits who are most likely to act on impulse, and events have shown that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts. There is no plausible deniability that can remove this blood from Beck’s hands:
Murders, shooting sprees, domestic terrorism, private citizens hiding in fear, infamous intimidations and provocations broadcast on national television - all linked to Glenn Beck - enough is enough! When toxic television threatens public safety, it concerns everyone. Even prominent Republicans are becoming alarmed:
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum:
Former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner:
National correspondent for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg:
It is time to pull the plug on Glenn Beck and serve notice to Fox News that partisan hate speech has no place in a free society. The strongest message you can send is to vote your pocketbook. Write letters to Fox News advertisers; tell them you will no longer patronize their products and services; and keep boycotting sponsors of Fox News until these outrageous partisan witch-hunts have stopped. Removing Glenn Beck from the airwaves will save lives.
Visit the Drop Fox Website Here
Visit the Fox News Boycott Website Here
Visit the Stop Beck Website Here
Endorsements:
Captain Fogg, Sheria, BJ, Octopus, Squatlo, Sue, Nance, TnLib, TomCat, Truth 101, Maleeper, Green Eagle, Kay, Shaw Kenawe, RockyNC.
UPDATE: To help spread this message, I am placing this article in the public domain, which means anyone may use it freely without credit or attribution. If you want a copy of the complete text (including imbedded links and html code), please send a request via email to swashzone@gmail.com. Finally, a note of special recognition to The Legendary Spocko who taught us how to take on Big Media by boycotting their sponsors.
Thanks for proving such nice info.
ReplyDeleteOctopus
Where is the petition to sign?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to not only pull the plug on Beck and his hateful paranoid rants - I'd like to forever seal up the drainpipe once he's been flushed through it!
ReplyDeleteI've posted this to FB (for all the good it will do there among the right wing knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers) and will link to your post from my site.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Octopus!
Shaw,
ReplyDeleteLater this week, I hope to have ready a standardized form letter and a startup list of advertisers. This petition campaign will be ongoing for awhile. Please check back for updates.
I've signed the petition & will throw up a quick post to link here.
ReplyDeleteGreat job!
Passing it on and posting it. Thank you for your hard work on this, Octo!
ReplyDeleteOnce again a bunch of liberal trying to squash free speech..
ReplyDeleteTo all readers:
ReplyDeletePerhaps this was inevitable: An anonymous flyby troll has left these messages in quick succession:
@ 12:48 PM: Free Speech is under attack by liberals again.
@ 12:49 PM: Once again a bunch of liberal[s] trying to squash free speech.
Just in case another flyby troll is tempted to sneer and jeer, lets make this necessary legal distinction: The operant legal concept here is “actual malice,” i.e. to knowingly provide false information; to demonstrate a reckless disregard for truth; to intentionally cause harm.
Defamation and slander are not constitutionally protected speech; incitement to commit murder is not constitutionally protected speech; agitation to commit domestic terrorism is not constitutionally protected speech; terrorizing private citizens is not constitutionally protected speech; extorting silence through bullying and intimidation is not constitutionally protected speech.
Before another flyby troll is tempted to leave a similar comment, I suggest they write the above paragraph on the blackboard 100 or more times until they understand this distinction. Otherwise be gone!
To our trolls: This is NOT an attempt to limit Beck's free speech but to hold the network and the advertisers accountable for supporting irresponsible and incendiary rhetoric that has led to violent acts.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis was hard for me to hear. Scary in an up-close and personal perforated way. Ratings aside, what possible reason could there be for fomenting such anger? Since I have nothing but time these days, I'm pledging here and now to write to every sponsor of this nonsense and make myself clearly understood- THIS is not the America that Christina-Taylor Green saw, and it is NOT the America in which I choose to live.
ReplyDeleteFree speech is one thing; inciting violence is another.... as I am here to attest.
a/b
This is a defense of responsible speech and journalism.
ReplyDeleteThere comes a time when the sane can't just look away and hope either Glenn Beck and his audience will come to their senses and see what their speech is doing. An old scholar is the subject of death threats and they're tracable to the words of Glenn Beck. A Congresswoman is shot in the head. Police officers shot and killed. These acts tracable to words spoken by Glenn Beck.
It's our duty as responsible citizens to do what we can legally to get Fox to take Beck off the airways and hopefully stop these despicable acts.
Wild accusations of "hating, or wanting to destroy America" are disingenuous at best and deadly at their worst.
Octo,
ReplyDeleteI re-posted this piece on Mature Landscaping and received the following response from Suzi Hileman (known around her blog and mine as Ashleigh Burroughs of The Burrow). Suzi is a victim of the Tucson shooting; it was she who escorted young Christina-Taylor Green to meet a real congresswoman and learn first-hand about participatory government.
"This was hard for me to hear. Scary in an up-close and personal perforated way. Ratings aside, what possible reason could there be for fomenting such anger? Since I have nothing but time these days, I'm pledging here and now to write to every sponsor of this nonsense and make myself clearly understood- THIS is not the America that Christina-Taylor Green saw, and it is NOT the America in which I choose to live."
Suzi has appeared on NBC with Brian Williams and in various print media in the past month. She has a platform right now and she means to use it for the best.
I've seen you as a Follower on her blog; I know you'll want to thank her personally for her endorsement.
Ashleigh, I am grateful you stopped by here. I am so sorry for your suffering and loss. My hope with this action is to begin restoring the America we all want our children and grandchildren to grow up in.
ReplyDeletejust a few quick thoughts, the text of the 1st amendment is misinterpreted on a regular basis by much of the populace.
ReplyDeleteCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The key word is Congress. The 1st amendment has nothing to do with citizens critiquing the speech of other citizens. Nor does freedom of speech mean that a business, corporation, or any non-governmental entity has to support any particular ideology by providing a platform for that ideology. In other words, the U.S. government cannot silence Beck but public will certainly can without there being any violation his 1st amendment rights.
Olbermann was recently fired. Presumably, his bosses didn't think that what he had to say served their needs any more. While I was sad to see him go, he didn't have a claim for a violation of his first amendment rights nor was he wacko enough to attempt to raise one. These trolls are ignorant of the law and really need to stop practicing it without a license.
P.S. Actual malice is not required for a non-government entity to plug Beck's mouth. If he becomes a financial liability rather than a financial asset, he'll be kicked off the network quicker than my grandpa could swat a fly in June.
ReplyDeleteThe Right keeps shouting freedom of speech as some sort of mantra when the concept is totally inapplicable unless the government is attempt to control speech. Btw, the Constitution was primarily concerned that the government not make laws to abridge a free press or to silence voices of dissent in the society. You can't have dissent if no one is allowed to challenge anyone else because we're all shouting about freedom of speech. You have freedom to express yourself and I have the freedom to tell you that what you said is full of crap.
You're dead right Sheria, as usual. But it doesn't matter to these people. If you're not actually arguing with the devil, you're surely arguing with his disciples.
ReplyDeleteBeck's power is to give false support and the illusion of importance to the angry, self pitying human detritus who would, in any free society be at the bottom and don't want to admit it's their own fault.
No, this is not another one of my nihilistic diatribes about the futility of human endeavor, but to think one can reason with such people as Beck supporters are; can explain, can illustrate, can enlighten, is to be disappointed.
One fool was so bold as to post fine, high sounding 4 word snippets from Beck, making it sound like we're opposing some fine, principled, educated and noble man and not the confused, grasping, ignorant and unscrupulous hate monger who has no discernible philosophy other than to foment unrest by lying and to do that for profit.
I refuse to bandy words with people who define someone who does oppose free speech as "liberal," who thinks that there should be no consequences for one's actions and is frankly stupid and trying to cover it up by belonging to an empty, incoherent quasi-religious cult of rage. You can't win an argument with an idiot or a zealot and what we're hearing from are idiotic zealots supporting an unscrupulous political profiteer.
Glenn Beck lies. Glenn Beck makes things up. Glenn beck is dangerous to American values and American democracy and the gates of hell are his lips.
It is much easier to incite the public with vitriolic outrage, back people into corners and encourage violence than it is to methodically point out the truth and encourage discourse where people listen and learn from one another. Unfortunately, Fox news (Faux news) has chosen the easy path to up their ratings and increase their income. They really seem not to care if lives are ruined or lost because of their irresponsible actions.
ReplyDeleteI just e-mail you and want to help. I think that inthe summer standing outside a theater showing a Fox movie with signs will be good as well.
ReplyDeleteOctopus: I was one of the folks who would have copied and pasted the entire thing to his blog, but don't understand the HTML issues involved. I know you've sent a mini-tutorial, but it might as well be in Greek. I hope linking back to your site with the story helps, but I'll do whatever it takes to get this asshole off the air.
ReplyDeleteFOOL-THE-OX (FOX);(NEWS)INFO or MIS-INFO...
ReplyDeleteFOX (CLEVERNESS); OX (STUPIDITY)...
FOX (LEADERS); OXen (FOLLOWERS)...
FOX (BREEDER); LUMMOX (OFFSPRING)...